Electronic mail is becoming a common form of communication in our modern society. It advantageously permits a user to retrieve text or even voice messages from almost anywhere in the world. Accordingly, some electronic mail systems employ protocols that will allow an electronic mail account to be accessed from a variety of different electronic mail capable devices. The post office protocol (referred to by the acronym POP), and more particularly its third version (i.e., POP3), is one such commonly used protocol.
To make electronic mail even more convenient, a variety of portable communication devices are currently being developed that will allow an electronic mail account user to access that account from any location in range of a wireless communication transceiver. These portable communication devices include wireless telephones, personal digital assistants, pocket computers and specialized electronic mail access devices. In order to access existing electronic mail accounts, however, the user must typically link a new electronic mail account associated with the portable device to the existing electronic mail account. In addition, some organizations, such as Internet service providers (ISPs), offer aggregated electronic mail services that allow a subscriber access to multiple electronic mail accounts maintained by different parties and at different locations through a single gateway.
One problem that has arisen with the use of such portable communication devices and aggregated electronic mail services, however, occurs with the process of initially configuring them to access an existing electronic mail account maintained by another party. Typically, the device user will be a layman who is unaware of the information that is needed by the communications device or aggregate electronic mail service provider to access an existing electronic mail account maintained by another party. For example, the user will typically not know the name of the server computer that hosts his or her existing electronic mail account. Also, the user may not even know the actual user name associated with his or her account.
This lack of knowledge makes it difficult for a communications device or aggregate electronic mail service provider to configure a new electronic mail account for access to an existing electronic mail account maintained by a third party without assistance. Instead, the user is generally required to obtain assistance from an expert familiar with the existing electronic mail account, which may be time consuming, expensive, and inconvenient. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system that will allow a communications device or aggregate electronic mail service provider to determine the information necessary to access an existing electronic mail account from the information that will generally be known by a typical electronic mail account user.